First pattern attempt!
28 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafting, Knitting Loom Tags: loom knitting
I started writing this post at the end of Feb and just haven’t managed to get the photos onto my laptop to finish it off.
I decided to get over my fear of following a pattern (despite my obsession over collecting them!) and I started a slipper. As well as tackling my first pattern, I’ve started to go through the collected patterns and get rid of those for a different loom than the large gauge looms I have.
This slipper pattern involved new things! Increasing rows. Binding off part of the loom to make a strap. Gathering Bind off.
I used wool that’s soft and fleecy but also a horrid baby pink, so I don’t care if it gets used up in botched attempts.
It’s a quick pattern, knits up in less than a couple of hours and I almost always knit on my work journey, so that’s an hour already done. An episode of The Tudors later and I had a floppy pink disintegrating slipper! It’s not fit for use, but it’s achieved it’s purpose in getting me over my pattern intimidation.
Attempt two was done with two strands of wool instead of just one, and worked a lot better. I ignored the increasing rows instruction this time and it makes a wider hole for the foot, but avoids the holes that increasing the rows produced.
Third attempt, this time with a lifted stitch that I found for increasing rows, and it does make the end slipper hold it’s shape better. The lifted stitch eliminates the hole, although I still ended up improvising a couple of other lifted stitches (where I saw a hole, I lifted the bottom of it onto the peg above and knitted it off (lifting bottom loop over top loop) – this only works of course if you see the hole when it’s close to the pegs, not half way down your knitting! This seemed to hide the holes without messing up the slipper shape – it might help that I’m using fluffy wool which might hide some stitch inconsistencies.
So now I have three mismatched pink slippers!!
My team leader at work liked them, and liked the pink, so, as it’s her birthday, I decided I’d make her a pair with a slightly darker pink fluffy wool I have. Now I feel I know what I’m doing, the slippers will hopefully match, and I plan to make a couple of little loom flowers to sew on the sides of the straps. It ended up looking good and of course I forgot to take a photo of them!
I’ve removed all the fluffy wool from my stash (I have lots of the same type of yarncraft fancy wool) – blue/white, pink, “spring” (yellow, green, orange) and plan on a slipper making marathon!! Guess what some of my Pay it Forwards will be!!
The next pattern I will attempt will be fingerless gloves/wrist warmers of some kind, although I have some busy weeks ahead of me, so I may just stick to spoolknitting and stick weaving until I have more time.
Crafty Conversations
24 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafting
One of the things I love about crafting on my little daily commute to and from work on the train is the conversations that sometimes strike up between interested people and myself.
I always feel really proud (for some reason!) when one of these conversations happens, I love explaining what I’m doing, whether it’s stick weaving or loom knitting, I wonder if anyone ever takes it further once they’re home.
Do they look up the craft on google, do they ponder about crafting themselves? Have I in any small way increased the number of people crafting? I really hope so! I’d love that to be true. It would be a proud moment to meet someone again on a train with their own set of wool and have them tell me I inspired them!
However, that’s very unlikely to happen, so in the meantime I will just enjoy the furtive looks that tired commuters give me at the end of the day before they look away and pretend to snooze. I will enjoy the people peeking round the back of seats before whispering to a friend, both of them trying to get up the courage to ask me what I’m doing. I will enjoy glancing up and noticing that most of the train carriage has become hypnotised and fixated on the movement of my fingers and the wool.
I’ll enjoy those few who do ask about what I’m doing, the few that have moved seats to get close enough to talk to me, to examine the item I’m crafting and filled my journey to or from work with idle crafting chatter with a stranger.
To all you stranger who talk or watch an equally strange crafter on the train, thank you, you really do make my journey!
Current Project
22 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
I’ve started a Gothic Neck Pillow.
Gothic becuase it’s black and purple wool – same wool in different colours, two strands of wool being used as one.
It’s knitting up nice and thick and I’m liking it so much I might have to keep this one and make another for the Pay It Forward gift!
Am using small long loom, knitting in the round, when it’s the length I desire, I’ll just stuff and sew up the ends. I may or may not add tassles.
Not enough time!
13 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
I massively overestimated how much wool I’d use on my week away! One huge bag of wool taken with me, one huge bag brought back! I didn’t manage to find a set of long looms as planned, nor did I find a replacement loom pick as I seem to have lost mine and they’re not easily found in the UK. I made a few loom flowers, still haven’t got the hang of crocheting the edge, but not sure that’s needed. I bought a mini crochet set for 99p, and I do intend to teach myself how to (or at least to see if its a craft I can pick up, I might find like needle knitting that it’s too fiddly for me).
Still, I managed to complete two loom knit scarves. Both took a LOT longer than expected.
One is a Garter Stitch scarf in white and blue fluffy wool which is “Blue Skies and White Fluffy Clouds” Scarf. It no longer looks QUITE so much like a dishcloth… makes a nice little scarf, probably a spring scarf, not that good against bad winter gusts, but will be cosy when there’s that little chill in the sunny air.
The other is again blue and white, but a pretty “flag” wool so it looks a little bit like a fabulously camp camouflage net! It’s a very pretty summer scarf, it won’t keep you warm, but it is very delicate. I might keep it as it is, or make a larger shawl/scarf by making a few more panels and sewing them together – unsure at the moment.
Pictures will be forthcoming, but these are likely to go to people for Pay It Forward gifts, so pictures will be shown after the gifts have reached their destination.
The bag is ongoing – mainly because it’s not working out as I’d wanting, so the motivation is low, but it can still have a use to contain equipment so it will get finished at some point.
I’m unsure about how much crafting I’ll get done in the near future. Have draft three of the essay to write, have a snotty cough, overtime at work in the mornings and an evening tutorial to iron out the wrinkles in my understanding of my essay. I have the bag and the stick woven scarf to get on with and might leave the starting of something new until my brain has a little more time to spread out and think in.
It’s been a fantastic year so far for motivation and energy and getting stuff done and life being generally rewarding – now is the test time to see if I can keep up the motivation and cope when I’m busy and ill. Let’s see how I do!
Just a quickie
01 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafting, Flower Loom, Knitting Loom, Stick Weaving
More for my own record really I guess. Crafting has been almost non-existent lately as I finish off draft two of the dissertation. Now that’s back with my tutor it’s time to turn attention back to crafting and think about what I’m wanting to do. I didn’t think I had any projects on the go, but when piling stuff on a chair I realised I did.
The “Breast Bag” is still part way through and I want to get some more bag sides knitted so I can practise making handles, it’s really not worked out, but meh, that’s not important. It will probably end up being a wool holding bag or something like that.
My stick woven scarf is getting ever longer, full of lovely random lengths of wool and will be the Longest Scarf in the World when finished. Maybe 10 foot long or something stupid like that?
I also started a scarf on the small knitting loom as I wanted to practise knitting a flat panel on it, this allows different textures of scarves to be made, this one is a simple garter stitch, but I could now think of ribbed scarves and other such lovelies. This might end up beinga Pay It Forward gift depending on how it turns out.
What I really want to do over the next couple of weeks is use my flower loom and make a number of square edged flower shapes and then see how they look when stitched together. It’s an eventual plan to make a throw from them, it’s also a way of using up odd scraps of wool. It’s a lot trickier and fiddlier than it would suggest so I’ve often found my dexterity and patience wearing thin.
Future projects - I have my Pay It Forward People to craft for and have decided to take a project I want to try and use the Pay It Forward as the motivation for making it. So what’s on the list?
Hot water bottle covers
Mitten
Slipper socks
oven gloves
pouches/bags
something for a baby
cabled mug-hugs (mainly as I just love the name of them and it gives me an excuse to learn how to cable)
This week will just be stick weaving as it’s relaxing and comforting and so far I’ve had a “bit of a week”, next week I have a mini holiday and am planning much crafting for it.
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